Like Father,Like Daughter - Hugs.And.Kisses (best novel books to read TXT) 📗

his chest and his left arm.

Next in line, there was Edward Jason Skellington, Eddy or Ed for short. He looked more like mom, except his right arm was bone from the shoulder down.

Lastly, there was the youngest of the Skellington triplets, Mercy Alice Skellington, Mercy for short. She was completely mom, only paler and skinnier and she, like both the boys, had empty sockets in place of eyes.

"Okay, let's get going before Aubrey starts with the baby talk." Shock groaned from the staircase. Shock loved her costume. It was a short, dark violet mini dress that came down just a few inches below her butt, with black and violet striped tights that came up three quarters of the way of her thighs, a spiked fringe at the top, and her clunky 'ugg' boots. But it was the sleeves that were the coolest; they were flowing, black flames, with each individual flame outlined in gold. And, of course, her hat, which she'd magically resized so it would fit. Her wild hair was… somewhat less frizzy, but still stuck out like mad because it was just so damn curly.

"Like you're one to talk." I teased, standing up. Of course, as much as Shock loved her costume, I loved mine more. It was a collared, long sleeved white shirt with black corset on top, stopping just below my chest. A short, vest-like attachment covered my the area between my shoulders and my neck and hooked onto the corset, with a pair of straps that hooked around my upper arms like bracelets, pulling the sleeves tight there before letting them loosen up above and below. Coming out from underneath the corset was a flowing black cape-skirt, which blended almost perfectly with my tight jeans and, heh, ugg boots. Shock and I go shopping together, what can I say? The back of my shirt was, of course, open for my wings, my main pair and the one that was still growing in, which were as long as my arm now.

"But they're just too cute not to baby talk." Barrel complained, his arm around Shock's shoulders. Barrel's costume was more for Shock's sake than his own, though I think he secretly liked it.

It was mainly a black tank top with a stiff, Chinese style collar and black jeans tucked into black boots with two dark green straps around the top. Two wide green belts were buckled around his waist, covering the bottom of his shirt and top of his jeans. An emerald sat at the base of the collars, in the middle where they met. And did I mention the cape?

Oh, the cape. Shock had the TOUGHEST time getting Barrel to wear the cape, but she won in the end (as usual). It had a collar like the tank top, and attached to his tank top just around the emerald. It consisted of two winged layers; one that fell to just past his elbows and the other fell to his ankles. The top was black, while the underside was, surprise, green.

Yeah, I know. It was hilarious as hell for the rest of us too.

Lock rolled his eyes. "You ready to go?" Lock's costume was better than Barrel's, mainly because I let him pick instead of picking for him. A low cut red vest over a black muscle shirt that tucked into black jeans, and his combat boots. Okay, those I picked out, but that's only because his tennis shoes looked stupid.

I nodded and walked over, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Let's go wreak some havoc!"

"Don't kill anyone." Dad warned, almost teasingly.

"Who?" Barrel asked innocently.

"Us?" Shock continued.

"Never!" Lock finished. I sighed. Never too old to finish each other's sentences… we walked calmly out of the house, our pace speeding up as we passed the gate, and we were all out sprinting by the time we reached the graveyard. Halloween, the one night of the year that every citizen of Halloween Town could go to Living World and scare the shit out of some poor, innocent humans was the biggest night of the year and goddamn, we were going to enjoy it!

"Which one, which one?" Barrel asked excitedly.

"Oh, who cares?" Shock groaned. "Just pick one so we can get going already!" I look around the graveyard, my gaze stopping on a large statue of a crucified angel. I hated that statue.

"That one." I pointed. The other three shrugged and ran over, tugging it open. We hopped through, emerging in a cemetery somewhere in Living World.

"Where are we?" Lock asked.

"Who cares?" Shock replied.

"Good point." He replied, hooking an arm around my waist.

Shock rolled her eyes. "Let's just go already."

I moved to step forward, but Lock's grip tightened. "You two go ahead. We'll catch up." I recognized the evil smirk on his face all too well and shook my head, motioning for them to go.

Barrel, apparently, got Lock's hint and grabbed Shock's hand, pulling her off. "We have scaring to be doing." I complained.

"In a minute." He replied, kissing me. I sighed happily, wrapping my arms around his neck. There were times where I loved Lock's hopeless romantic side. Then I remembered what night it was, and what we were supposed to be doing.

I pushed him away. "Lo-ock…" I whined. "Let's go. I wanna go scare people."

He rolled his eyes, pretending to be annoyed. "Fine. But you owe me a kiss later."

"Gotcha." I chirped, pulling him along. "Where did Shock and Barrel go?"

"Who cares?" Lock sighed. "We can do this way better on our own. I mean, you're the Pumpkin King's heir, and I'm, well, me."

"Yes, your Mr. Modest." I laughed. I stopped as the crowded streets met my eyes and a smile broke out across my face. "Who first?" I asked excitedly.

Lock looked around the crowd, then back at me. "In honor of your birthday, you pick." My smile widened and I looked around, my eyes falling on a group of four teenage boys, probably about our age, picking on a group of younger kids, just old enough to go out on their own for Halloween. My eyes narrowed.

"Them."

Lock followed my gaze. "The jerks?" I nodded. He grinned evilly. "Nice pick. Let's go."

The group quickly grew tired of teasing the kids and headed off to a worse looking part of town, probably to a party. Lock and I quickly found a shortcut to get ahead of them (aka: the rooftops) and put a plan into action. "Sgniw raeppasid." I muttered, my wings fading away as I spoke.

"I still don't like using you as bait." Lock muttered.

I kissed his cheek. "Oh, stop being jealous. I don't even like them. Besides, they're perfect targets. Now go get ready." I shooed him off. He rolled his eyes and went to go, ah, get ready.

Peering around the corner, I saw the boys making their way down the street. I grinned. All I had to do was lead them to Lock. I stepped out into the street, and their line of vision. I heard a couple of them whistle, and purposely sped my footsteps in the proper direction. They did as well, then started running after me.

'Silly boys.' I thought with a laugh. 'You're going to regret this.' A hand brushed my arm as I passed a dark, spooky alleyway (hey, if we were going to be cliché, we were going to do it right) and I turned into it. I pulled my wings back into reality and hopped up onto the roof nearby.

Peering over the edge, I saw the boys walk into the alley. "Hey, babe, where'd you go?"

"Yeah, we just wanted to party!" Another hooted. A third howled. Oh, were they going to regret that.

A low growl rumbled through the air. "Wh-what was that?" One whispered.

A huge monster, with bright red skin and huge, curling horns stepped out of the shadows. Smoke trailed out of its nose and mouth, and a crown of fire floated between its horns. I grinned and grabbed the items I'd hidden earlier, pulling on the black cloak and cheap, plastic scythe I'd… erm… borrowed from a store. My wings tore through the cloak (also cheap, now that I think about it) just before I hopped down behind the frightened group, who had been paralyzed by fear and a little magic.

I scuffed the edge of the magic circle I'd drawn in the dirt earlier, and the spell broke. Lock (for that is who the monster was) let out a loud roar and they scrambled for the alley mouth… which is where I was standing.

Now, if you'd just seen a huge monster that could probably swallow you whole, then a figure in a black cloak, with a shadowed face and scythe, you probably would've had the same reaction that these idiots had. One screamed and promptly fainted, and the rest ran past me, screaming bloody murder.

"I don't remember that being part of the plan." Lock observed as he returned to normal.

I shrugged, pulling the cloak off. "I was improvising. Uncle Grim's really gonna get me for that one."

"He'll be flattered, I'm sure." Lock said, stepping over the unconscious body on the ground.

"I can't believe you got your shape shifting down so quickly." I told him incredulously, quite impressed.

He grinned at me. "Hey, I like that class. I tried to get you and Shock to join…"

"I thought you liked how I looked." I replied, shoving him playfully. Lock just smiled and kissed me as we walked off.

We headed back around four hours later, about eleven thirty. The rest of the town was heading back as well, which we saw once we reached the Halloween Town graveyard. Music was filling the air, and the shadows on the gravestones were stirring. "The song is starting, come on!" I urged as we weaved in and out of the graves.

"Boys and girls of every age wouldn't you like to see something strange?" The shadows called.

"Come with us and you will see this, our town of Halloween." The Siamese butcher shadow called. (a/n: Seriously, they're holding a butcher's knife. And if they're not, they should be. And I'm seeing things)

Ghosts flew up through the ground and from their graves. "This is Halloween, this is Halloween!"

"Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!" Behemoth's wailing pumpkins sung out.

"This is Halloween, everybody make a scene! Trick or treat 'till the neighbors gonna die of fright!" The ghosts took back over. "It's our town, everybody scream in our town of Halloween!"

The creature under the bed took over. "I am the one hiding under their beds; teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red!"

"I am the one hiding under their stairs, with fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair!" The creature under the bed sang.

"This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!" The vampire brothers took over. "In this town we call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song!"

Even from our place in the graveyard, we could hear the Mayor on his megaphone. "In this town, don't we love it now, everyone's waiting for the next surprise."

The corpse chorus was up next. "Round that corner, there's a man hiding in the trash can. How he's waiting to pounce and hear you-"

"Scream!" Harley yelled, with a metallic clatter sounding after him, signifying he'd jumped out of the trash can.

There was a loud